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Skyrim's 1.9 update now in beta - brings "legendary" features

Phil Savage

Mar 04, 2013

Page 1 of 10

Bethesda are planning to release
Skyrim's
upcoming 1.9 update at the end of the month. The end of the month?! That's slightly under a month away! Fortunately, given that patience has never been among a Dragonborn's required skillset, you can test out the patch's beta version right now. With it you'll gain access to a new Legendary difficulty level, as well as Legendary Skills - a system that removes the level cap by using what sounds like a CoD-style Prestige system.

"Skills of 100 can be made Legendary," Bethesda explain on
their blog
. "This will reset the skill to 15, return its Perks and allow the skill to affect leveling again. This effectively removes the overall level cap."

A screenshot of the new system hints at how it will work. Plus side: the character is now at a previously unreachable Level 106. Downside: they've completely forgotten how to do Smithing
twice
. Presumably that playthrough's economy has nosedived in response to all the hastily crafted steel daggers that must be flooding the market.

To access the beta, you'll need to right-click Skyrim's entry in your Steam library, pop into the properties menu, skip over to the Beta tab and opt-in from the drop-down box.

You'll also gain access to this giant list of bug fixes:

General memory and stability improvements

Fixed issue with quest scripts that were not shutting down properly

Companions will equip better weapons and armor if given to them

Fixed rare issue where player is unable to learn the Clear Skies shout during “The Throat of the World”

Fixed rare instance where Alduin would become invincible during “Alduin’s Bane”

Fixed a rare issue where player could become stuck in Night Mother’s coffin during “Death Incarnate”

Fixed rare issue where protected companions could be killed from poison damage

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